Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, announced on Friday its plans to ditch its Symbian mobile operating system and partner with Microsoft to make smartphones running Windows Phone.

Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop joined Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a joint open letter, detailing the strategic alliance between the two companies. Though Nokia remains the largest phone maker in the world, the company has been on a significant slide, losing market share to Apple's iPhone and handsets running the Google Android operating system.

The two companies plan to create a "new global mobile ecosystem" by jointly creating mobile products and services. Nokia and Microsoft intend to work together and "integrate key assets and create completely new service offerings."

"Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great experience," Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO, said at a joint news conference in London. "Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivaled global reach and scale. It's now a three-horse race."

Nokia said that Symbian will become what it calls a "franchise platform," and will be sold on about 150 million devices in the coming years. But the company's strategy is a transition from Symbian to Windows Phone.

Elop made waves earlier this week when he released a 1,300 word internal memo entitled "Standing on a burning platform." The memo compares Nokia's position in the smartphone market to the story of a man on a burning oil platform, faced with the decision to die in a fire or plunge into the icy sea.

The memo depicts Nokia's Symbian and MeeGo platforms as competitive failures, and notes the tremendous success Apple has had with its iPhone and Google has had with Android in recent years. In particular, of Apple, he said that the Cupertino, Calif., company "changed the game."

In the newly announced partnership, Nokia will turn to Windows Phone to fight off the competition, while "innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging." The Finnish handset maker has said it will also "drive the future of Windows Phone" by contributing its expertise on global markets.

"I am excited about this partnership with Nokia," said Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. "Ecosystems thrive when fueled by speed, innovation and scale. The partnership announced today provides incredible scale, vast expertise in hardware and software innovation and a proven ability to execute."

Key elements of the partnership announced Friday by Nokia and Microsoft are:
Bing will power Nokias search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bings next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter will provide search advertising services on Nokia's line of devices and services.

Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft's mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft's Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience.

Nokias extensive operator billing agreements will make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.

Microsoft development tools will be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystems global reach.

Microsoft will continue to invest in the development of Windows Phone and cloud services so customers can do more with their phone, across their work and personal lives.

Nokia's content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.
Nokia said on Friday that it expects 2011 and 2012 to be "transition years" as the company works with Microsoft to implement the Windows Phone platform in its product lineup.

"Nokia is at a critical juncture, where significant change is necessary and inevitable in our journey forward," Elop said. "Today, we are accelerating that change through a new path, aimed at regaining our smartphone leadership, reinforcing our mobile device platform and realizing our investments in the future."

Elop made waves earlier this week when he released a 1,300 word internal memo entitled "Standing on a burning platform." The memo compares Nokia's position in the smartphone market to the story of a man on a burning oil platform, faced with the decision to die in a fire or plunge into the icy sea.

There's something tragic about this, since the man in the story sounds like he's going to die either way.

Desperate but the right move. Going Windows is risky but a smarter move than going Android. The Android platform is jus too crowded, so much competition among each other that prices are pulled down that it wouldn't help Nokia so much financially..

Well this announcentment has probably saved Windows Mobile from a total rout scenario throughout 2011.

I wish Nokia had bought palm when they had the chance, they really could have done something there without relying on a third party.

Before the iPhone I would only buy Nokia's, they are good solid phones. Such a shame to see them drop into a tailspin since 2007, who knows maybe this will work out for them, I hope it will.

First of all, MS isnt in decline. They are still growing their revenue and profits at a rate that outpaces the market each quarter.

Second, the strategy of two less successful companies combining to compete better against others in a market segment isnt uncommon, isnt a bad move in and of itself, and has proven to be hugely successful in the past.

Overall, I think WebOS would have been a better option, just as I think Android would have been a better option (but with a unique but steady UI that allowed for Nokia to differentiate itself, have its one Nokia Android app store that it approved and vetted, but not disallow other Android apps). The problem with these for Nokia is the problem theyve had with Symbian, Meego, Ovi and every other piece of code they suck at it. At least with WP7 they are paying MS for making an OS. And because of the WP7 sales being lower than expected MS needs them, too. This could work.

If the choice was between Android and Windows, I would have went with Android. Windows 7 is a big improvement over previous attempts, but Microsoft has been very slow to bring to market improvements. Further, it is years behind.

I think Nokia's worry was with patents and copyright. Eventually, Android will come with a cost to users as there is little chance Android isn't violating somebody else's work. If Oracle wins its lawsuit against Google, companies using Android will be next.

Holy crap! It always made sense but I really had a feeling Nokia wouldn't go for it.

I suppose Nokia must have seen what most people see once they play with a WP7... it's the best mobile phone OS sans a bunch of tick-box features and a more solid App Store.

Unfortunately there is a whole lot more to a mobile platform than simply having the best mobile phone OS like worldwide sales channels, mind share, confidence in the company, integration with other hardware and mobile devices and so on.

Some of this Nokia can provide like relationships with sales channels and some mind share. I'm impressed that Nokia are backing themselves. I wonder if they will re-brand? Having "Windows" in the name of a consumer phone kind of sucks!

Some Microsoft can provide. The early update being distributed (Apple style) by Microsoft through the Zune client is a big bonus.

However some things are still totally lacking like the solid 3rd party hardware and integration iDevices enjoy as well as a Windows tablet that can actually compete with the iPad.

Hope Nokia does better than every other company Microsoft has ever partnered with...

Its like an episode of House M.D. where a parasite has been inadvertantly keeping you alive when you should have been dead a long time ago, yet at the same time the parasite is adsorbing so much of your resources that you are now at its mercy and can no longer survive without it. See where Im going with this?

The next platform to die will probably be RIM's. My guess is RIM will go with Android.

I'm surprised by the level of commitment HP is showing to WebOS, but I suspect that no matter how well they execute, WebOS will lose due to what is essentially a very late start from scratch.

So we will end up with three platforms, iOS, Windows, and Android. My guess is that in the long run Apple and MS will have roughly equal shares of the market (maybe 25-30 percent each) while Android will take the rest (40-50 percent). Apple will be the most profitable, MS the second, and Android will be a failure from the perspective of a Google shareholder as I think Google will lose control of the platform. Android will become the "generic" platform embraced by no-name producers, and those producers may frequently choose to eschew Google services, particularly in the emerging markets.

Symbian was about on par with PalmOS. They were good OSes in their heyday but died a slow painful death. If Palm hung onto PalmOS too long, then Nokia really held onto Symbian too long.

I am surprised Nokia went with Microsoft and not Google. Windows Phone 7 offers all the disadvantages of Android but at a cost.

I guess Nokia didn't want to be just another android company. Is there really anything to differentiate ones products in Android camp. I think consumers are more loyal to Android, than single manufacturer.

I suppose Nokia must have seen what most people see once they play with a WP7... it's the best mobile phone OS sans a bunch of tick-box features and a more solid App Store.

Unfortunately there is a whole lot more to a mobile platform than simply having the best mobile phone OS like worldwide sales channels, mind share, confidence in the company, integration with other hardware and mobile devices and so on.

Some of this Nokia can provide like the sales channels and some mind share. I'm impressed that Nokia are backing themselves. I wonder if they will re-brand? Having "Windows" in the name of a consumer phone kind of sucks!

So you are saying the WP7 is the best mobile phone OS if you don't consider any of the features of the competing phones?

Sales Channels are provided by carriers not phone manufacturers. Apple is an exception because they also sell in their own stores.

Poor timing, given the recent advances in the mobile space and HP's aggressive WebOS schedule. It seems painfully simple and obvious to me that Nokia should have bought Palm as soon it was clear the Pre wasn't going to keep them afloat independently.

Now Nokia is just another me-too building handsets to someone else's specification and with someone else's software. What's the USP? Continuing to innovate on top in areas where they are market leaders, like imaging? What, they are going to put a better camera and app on the phone to differentiate themselves?

It also keeps Nokia firmly OUT of the tablet market, unlike *every other manufacturer* who is creating a suite of mobile products iPhone/iPad, Blackberry/Playbook, Android Phone/Android Tablets, Pre/Whatever the WebOS tablet was called again....Windows Phone 7 Series phone....and...a slow netbook running a desktop OS? Useless.

"I am excited about this partnership with Nokia," said Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. "Ecosystems thrive when fueled by speed, innovation and scale. The partnership announced today provides incredible scale, vast expertise in hardware and software innovation and a proven ability to execute."

"Ecosystems thrive"?
> W T F does that mean to 99% of phone Users? Enough already, with 'Ecosystem'. Can't we just use the term "integrated services"?

"Fuelled by speed, innovation and scale"
> trite verbal diarrhoea.

"proven ability to execute"
> WTF does that mean - could it be that they "sell lots of units"? For goodness sake. And how is it proven? How well are WP7 and Nokia units selling these days?

When any CEO starts talking platitudinous business-speak that only underscores the weakness of the point trying to be made - and the weakness of the CEO.

First of all, MS isnt in decline. They are still growing their revenue and profits at a rate that outpaces the market each quarter.

Second, the strategy of two less successful companies combining to compete better against others in a market segment isnt uncommon, isnt a bad move in and of itself, and has proven to be hugely successful in the past.

Overall, I think WebOS would have been a better option, just as I think Android would have been a better option (but with a unique but steady UI that allowed for Nokia to differentiate itself, have its one Nokia Android app store that it approved and vetted, but not disallow other Android apps). The problem with these for Nokia is the problem theyve had with Symbian, Meego, Ovi and every other piece of code they suck at it. At least with WP7 they are paying MS for making an OS. And because of the WP7 sales being lower than expected MS needs them, too. This could work.

I was referring to Win mobile in that sentence, When you consider the Windows Mobile Market share even last year to today then they are a declining giant.

You are right that MS is making more money now that before, more computers are shipping each year and so sales of Windows naturally grows as well. Having said that the iPad has already made a big splash and everyone is following suit, MS has been broadsided and is not likely to have competing software out within the next 2 years leaving the field open to others such as Apple, Rim, Google, HP...... If these devices start replacing home computers then their profits and grip on the industry will begin to fade.

I hope WM7 is not the OS in new Nokia devices. It would be best to get a WM8 out with the missing features from WM7 implemented along with Nokia's feedback. WM7 goes to the extent of specifying screen resolution (only one) that is supports. Silverlight integrated with WM7 only has a small subset of Silverlight for the Web & .Net elimination a lot of easy portability. WM7 is a experiment after the failure of the previous version.

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It was nice knowing you Nokia. I guess you haven't noticed what happens to companies who 'partner' with M$.

There was nothing wrong with Symbian. What you failed to do was improve it, and build a touch-UI on the OS, and an ecosystem of software and services. All of which could have been done on Symbian.

Good luck with that Microsoft thing....

Improving isnt enough. We can use Symbian as an example of that. It was doomed like Mac OS was doomed, like WinMo was doomed, like BB OS was doomed, etc. You cant just pop on a touchscreen system and call it a day. Something you have to scrape what you are doing and start from scratch. With Nokia unable to program their way out of the first test in Project Euler going with WP7 made sense.

It was nice knowing you Nokia. I guess you haven't noticed what happens to companies who 'partner' with M$.

There was nothing wrong with Symbian. What you failed to do was improve it, and build a touch-UI on the OS, and an ecosystem of software and services. All of which could have been done on Symbian.

Good luck with that Microsoft thing....

I tend to agree with this assessment. I'm not sure why everyone else is being so positive about it.

This feels like a takeover to me, even at this distance. I think that "up close" in Helsinki they are probably not going to react very well at all. We are talking about *the* national company here, I don't think the majority of the folks that use Nokia products, let alone the huge portion of the population that works there, is going to see this as good news.

It seems likely that vast numbers of Nokia smartphone users will jump ship. It seems likely also that the clash of cultures and what appears to be an outside hostile takeover of the beloved national company is going to cause some major waves as well.

By the time they get it all sorted out it will be too late and too many people will have left. At the very least we are going to see a years worth of "integration" while Windows Phone 7 is re-done so it works internationally.

This is horrible news for Nokia. They are going to be eviscerated because they bought into a crazy pipe dream of Win Phone 7 dominance that was sold to them by the oldest group of snake-oil salesmen in the business.

Hope Nokia does better than every other company Microsoft has ever partnered with...

you mean like Apple?

i do not know much on this topic, so i won't say more- but MS and Apple did partner... at multiple points (some good for Apple, some bad, very very bad)

anyways, i think this is good news, as Android doesn't need more confusion- if Nokia does fairly well, i wouldn't be supprised if MS decided to only let Nokia use Windows Moblie, creating 5 large groups
A- RIM... dying as of know... lets see with the new OS
B- Apple... very successful staying that way for all the foreseeable future and beyond
C- HP... provided they understand that having a phone with no keyboard will probably sell better, i could see that taking off + having the OS work on windows PC's, making something like the App store.
D- android... i do agree that it will cost money sooner or later, and that googles regulation policies (or should i say lack of) to power of phones, and the android (idk what its called) store will bring it down
E- Nokia/Window Mobile... from all the friends that i know who have gotten a windows mobile phone, including one who switched from an IPhone to note, they all like it, aside from from the much smaller selection of Apps as of know. So it seems like it has a good user interface (i haven't used it myself, so i won't comment personally, that is my exp with friends) and other things like that. I think it will become a major player.

I personally think that if RIM doesn't get its buissness market back up, it will cease to be a player, if it can keep it back up, and hold it, i think that the mainstream market will turn into 3 (4) major camps
1- Apple/HP- control both the phones hardware, and the software, allowing them to bargain with the companies they want to sell them through. i would estimate this would be 40-50% of the market. unless Apple makes a cheaper IPhone, and HP making a phone without a keyboard.
2- Android- confusion, confusion, confusion, but cheapest still, running on cheap hardware well costing the phone companies/mfrs a small amount (less than WM, which would be with Nokia in this scenario) of money as possible. As well as apps that run on some phones but not others etc. probably controlling a 20-30% of the market.
3- WM+Nokia. like Apple/HP in a way, but the software is developed however MS wants it, and the hardware however Nokia wants it, with minimum specs universal. This would not be as good as an enviroment as Apple/HP but would probably have a price advantage (over Apple, not sure of HP) thanks to lower margin. controlling 20-40% of the market

PC means personal computer.

i have processing issues, mostly trying to get my ideas into speech and text.

Its like an episode of House M.D. where a parasite has been inadvertantly keeping you alive when you should have been dead a long time ago, yet at the same time the parasite is adsorbing so much of your resources that you are now at its mercy and can no longer survive without it. See where Im going with this?

That is the best news I got out of this article. You can not image how I hated Symbian when I developed on that platform. Symbian OS is the worst OS I have ever seen. It is designed by arrogant, conceited fools who have absolutely no regard and no clue for application development. You need to jump hoops to simply FORMAT A STRING.

I am so glad the stint was short because it was a huge waste of time. To do a same application on Symbian requires at least 4 times more efforts than on iOS or Android, if possible at all. Those dead woods(Symbian platform designers) not only waste the R&D money of Nokia(remember it was started more than 14 years ago), they also waste all the lives of the application developers. For all Symbian developers, have a life and get something that are real and deliver some products instead of wasting all your time manipulating TDesC, TPtr, HBuffC to simply display a message.

And what OS will they use? Windows Phone 7 Series Tablet edition? I think not. MS are simply not going to tread on Windows toes by upscaling the mobile OS into form factors that they want to put Windows on instead. So it's no tablets for Nokia, unless they put a different OS on it to their phones. Meego? Old Symbian? Something new?

They haven't just missed the boat, they're still lost on the way to the port. Smartphone wars was 2 years ago. iOS and Android are firmly entrenched. The current battle is for tablets, it's the emerging market, and the one in which most people think the money is going to be. That's why *every* major phone manufacturer of say 3/4 years ago (Palm, Samsung, Rim, Motorola, HTC etc) are moving out of being phone companies and into mobile computing. They are bring out familys, or suites of products to leverage their brand, phones and tablets the lot of them, they are all at it. And what do Nokia have? Someone else's hardware spec with someone else's OS that they cannot modify and throw onto a tablet instead, and the inability to even BRAND the products they will sell as their own, and USP which will boil down to "our phone peripherals and bundled crapware are better than someone else's on the same platform".

I tend to agree with this assessment. I'm not sure why everyone else is being so positive about it.

If you don’t think this is positive then you must think it’s negative or neutral. Do you really think that Nokia not admitting they have a problem and sticking with Symbian is a more positive solution? I certainly don’t. That isn’t to say that partnering with MS isn’t without its downfalls, but it’s a more positive option than they had going for them and it’s not like we have evidence that WebOS or Android would have been better. In fact we have plenty of evidence to sugest that they would have completely destroyed any internal attempt at making an OS there own. So why is this whole arrangement without any positives for Nokia? I see two things that are failing that trying to combine forces to be strong on some level. IOW, exchanging Symbian for a symbiotic.

PS: I like Elop. Not many CEOs can through in “subject to the completion of a definitive aggreement” into a speech and make it sound natural.

The next platform to die will probably be RIM's. My guess is RIM will go with Android.

I'm surprised by the level of commitment HP is showing to WebOS, but I suspect that no matter how well they execute, WebOS will lose due to what is essentially a very late start from scratch.

So we will end up with three platforms, iOS, Windows, and Android. My guess is that in the long run Apple and MS will have roughly equal shares of the market (maybe 25-30 percent each) while Android will take the rest (40-50 percent). Apple will be the most profitable, MS the second, and Android will be a failure from the perspective of a Google shareholder as I think Google will lose control of the platform. Android will become the "generic" platform embraced by no-name producers, and those producers may frequently choose to eschew Google services, particularly in the emerging markets.